Lolly: You more. GTG. DICI.
I’m not even asking what that means.
I toss my phone back in my car. “Do you ever text Lolly?”
“Yeah. She uses this weird code that you can’t quite figure out.”
“All the time.” I smile at him. “So a week.” I take a breath as frustration gets the best of me. “This is going too far. I’ll have to uproot my whole life in a week. Where am I supposed … to go …”
Hartley’s lips curl. “If you’re my wife, I’m guessing you’ll live with me.”
Right.
Oh, fuck.
A shiver races down my spine as I imagine waking up in his bed, sitting across from him for supper, and having my lingerie mixed up with his boxers in the washing machine. I feel my cheeks blush—there’s no stopping it. I’ve been concentrating on the logistics and emotional upheaval of this arrangement. I’ve never stopped to think about these things … the little things. The things that I can’t let happen. Things like blurring the intimate parts of real life with the pretend life we’re creating.
I force a swallow. “I guess you’re right. I’m assuming that’s okay?”
“I think it would be hard to explain that I got married, but my wife lives with her sister.”
“That’s true.” My brain kicks into overdrive. “All right. If I’m living with you for the next year, we must have separate bedrooms. I need a little privacy.”
“Yup.”
I study him. “That was easy.”
“You snore. There are four bedrooms. You can have your pick of them.”
“I don’t snore,” I say, looking offended.
He tosses me a challenge with a single brow lift.
“I don’t,” I repeat. “Besides, if I recall—and I do—you have terrible morning breath.”
His eyes sparkle as he chuckles. “That’s solved. Now what?”
“Well, if we’re doing this for a year, we’re definitely going to be in public together. So that probably means we’ll have to … you know … show public affection.”
Hartley’s lips twitch.
“Don’t smirk,” I say.
“I’m not.”
I point at his mouth. “You’re absolutely smirking.”
“Darlin’, you just saidpublic affectionlike someone asked you to eat glass.”
Did I?“I didn’t mean it that way. I’m just saying that I’m not sure how we’ll handle that.”
“I guess I don’t see the confusion. We’re supposed to act married. And we just danced together in public, so it’s not that far off.”
“And you chased Derrick off,” I say with a grin.
He shrugs. “I was into my role before it was my role.” He returns my smile. “But, yeah, I’ll probably hold your hand sometimes. We might even have to kiss.”
My chest heaves. I’ve kissed him before—plenty of times. And once that seal breaks, it’s nearly impossible not to want more.
